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Two conservation programs would expire under current farm bill |
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The Bush administration proposed clamping down today on funding for key farm conservation programs under a fiscal 2009 Agriculture Department budget plan that would reduce overall spending from this year.
The nearly $95 billion proposal would cut off spending for programs that would expire without a new farm bill and seeks to advance some of the administration's farm bill proposals, as the White House and Congress continue their tussle over funding and payment caps.
The five-year farm bill would direct most USDA spending and activities. The House and Senate each passed versions of the bill last year, but they have failed to advance the measures in conference negotiations in the face of White House veto threats over spending levels and tax provisions. Lawmakers have extended the 2002 farm bill through mid-March.
In the absence of a new law, the White House attempts in its budget proposal to advance farm bill proposals that Congress has already rejected. For example, President Bush's budget request includes revisions to crop support programs and a lower cap to shut out wealthy farmers from crop subsidy payments.
The budget does not include many of the increases or changes that the House, Senate or even the Agriculture Department had included in their farm bill proposals. Rather, the administration mostly follows the current law, zeroing out some programs that would expire without a new bill.
The budget proposes to extend some farm conservation programs at current levels and cut future spending on the Conservation Security Program (CSP), a favorite of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who will chair the farm bill conference negotiations.
CSP would get $360 million in fiscal 2009 under the budget proposal, a slight increase from this year, but the budget would reduce further spending authority for the program by $80 million over the next 10 years.
Conservation programsTwo conservation programs that would expire under the current farm bill -- the Grasslands Reserve Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program -- get no funding in the administration's proposal. And a program that pays for wetlands conservation would get just enough money to bring it up to the acreage limit in the last farm bill, then end the program.
And USDA's largest conservation and land retirement program -- the Conservation Reserve Program -- would receive less money than the administration proposed for last year, when they said they would halt future sign ups.
The budget also makes what has become an annual effort to zero out funding for a number of discretionary programs, including local watershed surveys and flood prevention programs, that the administration says are redundant. The administration has tried to eliminate the programs in previous years, but congressional appropriators have restored them each year.
Some key proposals:
* $181 million for the Wetlands Reserve Program.
* $1.05 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
* $97 million for the Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program.
* $1.95 billion for the Conservation Reserve Program.
* $60 million for the Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program.
* No funding for Resource Conservation and Development Program, Watershed Surveys and Planning and Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 February 2008 )
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